World of Hyatt and Aeroplan announced a new partnership today, offering members of both loyalty programs the opportunity to participate in status challenges with the other, redeem points in one program for awards with the other, benefits for Canadian Aeroplan cardholders, and more.
How to link your accounts
Visit this link in order to link your Hyatt and Aeroplan accounts.
Hyatt members
For Hyatt members, there’ll be a few new ways to engage with the Aeroplan program:
Redeem points for awards
You can redeem 50,000 World of Hyatt points for a 30,000 point award flight with Aeroplan, valid for flights on both Air Canada and its partners.
Unless there’s a ridiculously valuable award flight with Aeroplan, this represents very poor value. Even if there was a valuable flight like that, Aeroplan is a transfer partner of Amex Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Capital One miles, and Bilt Rewards. As a result, the vast majority of people would be far better off transferring 30,000 points from one of those programs rather than redeeming 50,000 Hyatt points.
Convert points
You’ll be able to turn Hyatt points into Aeroplan points, but at a 2:1 ratio—something else that represents poor value.
You have to convert at least 5,000 Hyatt points, then in increments of 1,000 points after that.
Earn Aeroplan points instead of Hyatt points
Instead of earning Hyatt points for Hyatt stays, you can choose to earn 500 Aeroplan points per stay. Unless you’re booking a super-super-cheap one night Hyatt stay, please don’t do this.
Air Canada flight credit
World of Hyatt members with elite status (i.e. Discoverist, Explorist, and Globalist) get a $20 CAD Air Canada flight credit after linking their accounts, as well as each year after that.
The flight credit will be valid for 12 months from the date it’s deposited into your account. Then from the second year onwards, you’ll receive the $20 CAD flight credit at the start of each calendar year, provided you maintained some level of Hyatt elite status by the end of the previous year.
Status challenges
Hyatt members with Explorist or Globalist status will be able to participate in status challenges each year to earn elite status with Aeroplan. These status challenges aren’t available right now, but are due to go live later in 2026.
Aeroplan members
There’s a range of Hyatt-related benefits for members of Aeroplan too, although you’ll need to have elite status or a premium Canadian Aeroplan card to be eligible for them.
Status challenges
If you have any level of elite status with Aeroplan or a premium Aeroplan credit card, you’ll be able to enroll in a 90 day status challenge each year:
- Discoverist – earn after staying 4 nights
- Explorist – earn after staying 10 nights
- Globalist – earn after staying 20 nights
The status you earn will be valid for the rest of the calendar year in which it’s earned, as well as the 14 months beyond that. That means that if you complete the requirements in 2026, you’ll have the status through February 29, 2028.
Canadian premium Aeroplan cardholders will also receive the following benefits:
- Complimentary Discoverist status
- 5 elite night credits each calendar year
- The ability to participate in a status challenge twice per year (i.e. if your first attempt was unsuccessful, or you want to shoot for even higher status than you attained with your original attempt)
- Earn both Aeroplan points and Hyatt points on Hyatt stays
Redeem Aeroplan points for Hyatt free night certificates
Similar to the ability that Hyatt members now have to redeem points for a poor value Aeroplan 30,000 point award flight, Aeroplan members can do something at equally poor value for Hyatt free night certificates.
You’ll have to redeem 25,000 Aeroplan points for a Hyatt category 1-4 free night certificates and a whopping 75,000 Aeroplan points for a category 1-7 free night certificate. Unless you’re so overloaded with Aeroplan points that you don’t know what to do with them, and there’s some kind of incredible category 7 property that you simply must book which is at ‘Top’ (i.e. the highest) pricing, this shouldn’t be considered. Even then, Top pricing for category 7 properties is 55,000 Hyatt points, so redeeming 75,000 Aeroplan points instead isn’t great.
Convert points
Aeroplan members with elite status can convert points to World of Hyatt points on a 2:1 basis. There’s a minimum 500 points to be converted per transaction, with a cap of 100,000 Aeroplan points per day and a cap of 250,000 Aeroplan points per week.
As with the Hyatt to Aeroplan 2:1 conversion ratio, this is a bad value proposition.
Earn both Hyatt points & Aeroplan points on Hyatt stays
Holders of an eligible Canadian Aeroplan credit card can earn both Hyatt points and Aeroplan points when booking Hyatt stays on the following basis:
- Aeroplan Premium cardholders – 2 Hyatt points + 2 Aeroplan points per $1 CAD
- Aeroplan Premium Business cardholders – 2 Hyatt points + 2.5 Aeroplan points per $1 CAD
- Aeroplan Core cardholders – 1 Hyatt point + 1.5 Aeroplan points per $1 CAD
- Aeroplan Core Business cardholders – 1 Hyatt point + 2 Aeroplan points per $1 CAD
Quick thoughts
For the most part, it’s hard to get too excited about the way this partnership has been set up as there are so many aspects to it that provide bad value for members. Converting points from Hyatt to Aeroplan is bad. Converting points from Aeroplan to Hyatt is bad. Redeeming Hyatt points for Aeroplan awards is bad. Redeeming Aeroplan points for Hyatt free night certificates is bad. Earning Aeroplan points instead of Hyatt points on stays is nearly always bad.
That said, there are a few redeeming features to the partnership. If you have any level of Hyatt elite status—which can be gained from either of their US-issued credit cards, as well as through other status-earning activities—getting a $20 CAD Air Canada flight credit each year will be nice to have seeing as all you have to do is initially link your accounts. The value of that will obviously depend on whether you ever book paid Air Canada flights, but it’s something for nothing and the fact that it’ll be valid for 12 months makes it more useful than a credit that expires far sooner than that.
The feature that’ll likely interest more of you though is the forthcoming ability to earn Aeroplan elite status through a status challenge if you currently have Hyatt status. As that feature isn’t live at the time of this partnership launch, we don’t know how stringent the challenge requirements will be, how high up the Aeroplan status ladder you’ll be able to reach, if Hyatt Discoverist members will only be able to attain a lower Aeroplan status level than a Globalist member, etc. It therefore does remain to be seen quite how useful and valuable that’ll eventually be for people.
Similarly, those who have Aeroplan status will get to benefit from a Hyatt status challenge, all the way up to Globalist status. Globalist status usually requires 60 elite night credits in a calendar year; this challenge will get it for you after earning 20 elite night credits within 90 days. While that means you’d need to earn the elite nights at a faster pace, it will be handy if you know you’ll already be staying 20 nights (or thereabouts) within a 90 day period. It could also make it worth a mattress run if you’ll end up just a few nights short of the 20.
As a reminder, if you have Marriott Bonvoy Titanium or Ambassador status, one of their benefits is Aeroplan 25K elite status via their reciprocal partnership. That would in turn make you eligible for a Hyatt status challenge in case you’ve been wanting to move your loyalty over from Marriott.
There are dual earning benefits on Hyatt stays for Canadian Aeroplan cardholders too when paying with their card, but we won’t focus on those too much here seeing as Chase Aeroplan® credit cardholders aren’t eligible. That might provide some value, but I’m not familiar enough with the Canadian credit card market to know if there would be better cards to pay with for Hyatt stays.
Hyatt has had a long-standing partnership with American Airlines. That too has offered status challenges, dual earning promotions, the ability to redeem points/miles for awards with the other program, and the ability to select certain American Airlines benefits as Hyatt Milestone Rewards. We’ve had no indication that Air Canada benefits will become available as Hyatt Milestone Rewards, but it would be nice if, say, Aeroplan 25K elite status became available as a redemption option in the future at the 70 elite night credit level of Milestone Rewards, similar to how American Airlines Gold status is an option.
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While a majority of options are poor value I’ll take a few new useful partner benefits over none. I’ve found the majority of transborder Air Canada flights were better booked in cash than points, and that free money is great to have for it.
Last year I earned Hyatt Globalist via the 20 night challenge from AAdvantage status, and will be close enough this year to mattress run if necessary for the full 60 nights and all the milestone awards. This new partnership opens up an avenue to match again next year from Aeroplan for another 20 night challenge for status through 2028 (I let my AA status lapse and have none at all, but picked up the Chase Aeroplan card this year and will have 25K status from it). Having burned down many of my Hyatt points before the deval and anticipating that to continue before properties jump into the higher award chart tiers, I don’t know that it will be worth pursuing 60 nights again next year for Globalist. But I’ll gladly do it for 20!
“20 CAD Air Canada flight credit”
Are we able to use the credit toward reward ticket fees/taxes?
Can we link both AA and Aeroplan or we have to choose one over the other? For US based and someone who usually is flying Oneworld most of the times, which one would you recommend if have to choose between the two? I am AA EP and probably will at least be PP next year and Hyatt <> AA reciprocal earnings are usually disappointing on both sides. Would you recommend switching to Aeroplan in case I ever have to redeem points there?
You should be able to link both. It certainly sounds like American Airlines would be better for you to focus on if you’re usually flying Oneworld because Aeroplan is part of Star Alliance.
My first thought is that I could swap my “trapped” Aeroplan miles for a few Cat 1-4 FNCs. If you think about the potential to spend 25k Aeroplan miles for a certificate, and Hyatt category 4 nights now top out at 25k, I don’t think that’s a bad exchange under the right circumstances. And I believe I had a transfer bonus when I moved the points to Aeroplan, so that makes the exchange a little more palatable.
Am I understanding correctly that I would need Aeroplan Elite status in order to do this? I don’t think I have any of the status match paths available to me that you mentioned in the post.
I have just answered my own question – it looks like the FNCs are available for the core Aeroplan members. The certificates expire within 6 months, so I will just keep that info in my back pocket for when (if) I have a specific plan to use them.
I had the same thought as you about my trapped miles. What do you mean by “core” Aeroplan members?
If you have the Chase Aeroplan card, and get the included 25K status, can you you do this status challenge to get Globalist as an American or is this just for Canadian citizens?
25K status from the Chase Aeroplan card would make you eligible – for a Hyatt status challenge you need Aeroplan status or an Aeroplan card, not both.
Does that mean now I can transfer my aeroplan points to Hyatt directly 1:1?
No, it’s a 2:1 transfer ratio, so it’s poor value.
I find this interesting. I am at 38 nights through spend and mattress runs just to get the guest of honor award for an upcoming trip. I could have done 20 nights and I would have globalist. Of course limited milestone awards but I think I would take advantage of it.
So…we can turn Amex MR (and pretty much every other transferrable currency) into Hyatt FNCs? It may not be great value, but it can be done?
You do you, but trading 75K MR/Aeroplan points for even a category 7 free night certificate probably won’t be do better than 1cpp, if you’re lucky. Besides, so much extra work to get that done. Hard pass.
Yeah the value is definitely poor, but (1) idk if it’s that much extra work and (2) for someone flush with non-Chase/Bilt transferrable points, I suppose there may be appeal.
I think it will also likely appeal to Canadian residents, especially those who fly AC for business frequently, and don’t have a great way to earn many transferrable points at all.
We have several transferable points programs so this isn’t appealing on that score at all. The appeal for this is the 5 nights as we don’t have a Hyatt cc, the Discoverist for premium cards and the double dipping on points earning.
There is a niche angle where this could make sense value wise – earning a Cat 1-4 FNC via an Aeroplan transfer bonus.
The obvious one is UR transfers for Chase Aeroplan cardholders, who can expect a 35% total bonus to Aeroplan once or twice a year (25% transfer bonus + 10% cardholder bonus). That brings the cost of a Cat 1-4 FNC down to ~18,500 UR points. Seems like a pretty reasonable redemption for a Cat 3 or 4 property priced at Moderate or higher on the new award chart. You are competing with a cash stay reimbursed with PYB at 1.25cpp, so it really needs to be a high season cash rate to make sense.
If you can score a higher transfer bonus to Aeroplan – say through Rove or Bilt – then the FNCs start to look more intriguing, since you know you’re never getting a transfer bonus directly to Hyatt.